Doctor Strange Review

Well the newly minted brand Marvel Studios certainly lives up to its most recent installment’s name Doctor Strange. As the title suggests, this is certainly a strange deviation from Marvel’s usual world of the comic superheroes. This is a hero that Marvel Studios has not yet tried to release to its dedicated fans. But this superhero, magic loving, movie nerd thinks they’ve definitely nailed it with this brand new addition to the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe). /Granted I know nothing about the comic book character Doctor Stephen Strange so I cannot speak to the movie’s faithfulness of adaptation. However I can speak as a person who has studied film, as a person who is an insane lover of superheroes, and somebody who loves to analyze stories. So without further ado, there is no better place to begin than the beginning.

One of the immediate things that is refreshing about the movie Doctor Strange is that they waste no time with giving us Stephen Strange’s backstory. Most origin movies have a tendency to dedicate a good chunk of a film to the things that make the character who they are. Now sometimes with new and complicated characters this is important to do. However with superhero movies, let’s be honest, they don’t need to do this! They are pulling from existing material and yes not everyone’s going to have read it (myself being in that camp) but we don’t need his whole life story. As an audience member paying good money to watch this breathtaking blockbuster in IMAX 3D, I want to get to the reason that makes this movie worth seeing on that gigantic screen. That reason being be the sequences where the characters use their powers to manipulate reality. Which in all fairness to the film, it does open with one of those phenomenal sequences.

So Stephen Strange is introduced and right off the bat we get a clear picture of who he is. He’s a genius with a massive ego that gets in the way of him doing some actual good in the world. Yes he saves people but he never does it genuinely for the person’s benefit. It is always to advance himself in ways that only benefit him. All this is made clear to us in the first 15 minutes and immediately after we process it he gets into the accident that causes him to seek out every possible avenue he can find in order to get back to what he was. Which was the man who can perform mind blowing (pun intended) neurosurgeries that brought people back to life. Throughout his search for a cure of his shaky hands though he learns about the far away temple, which for the life of me I do not know how to spell, but this is where his journey into understanding the mystical arts begins.

Now this is where we get into the exciting special effects part of the movie! The mere concept of this ability to manipulate reality and theory of a multiverse goes way above my understanding and what I studied in Astronomy 101. But I have to say the design of this world was incredible. The production designer of this film really had their work cut out for them and the end result was so beautiful. The CGI was seamless with the rest of the film that not only does it take your breath away but the seamless blending of it with the live action was incredible. The fight scenes were expertly done and brilliantly choreographed and I think it is safe to say that we are now well past the days of painfully obvious CGI (looking at you Scorpion King from The Mummy Returns).

It is rather difficult, when talking about the special effects, not to draw a comparison to the film Inception. The idea of this warped reality is extremely similar to that of the dream world that Christopher Nolan created in his film. Now he had a particular emphasis of wanting to use practical effects but there was no way Marvel was going to be able to do this film with practical effects. But Marvel has continually blown us away with their smooth use of special effects and if this is movie is any indication I think we can only expect better graphics to come. The one downside to this is that sometimes the use of these epic sequences and their amazing CGI is that sometimes that effect can be overwhelming. There are times where it was a lot to swallow and the average audience member might lose track of what was going on in the sequence.

And with that point alas, we have now come the problems. I know, it stinks but come on we had to get to them eventually. Analyzing the villain of the film, Kaecilius, played by the tremendous Mads Mikkelson was kind of the same old villain as usual we are used to seeing on the silver screen. I will admit his idea to joining up with the “The One” is new but that is mostly because of the fact that this an entirely new territory for Marvel Studios. Mads Mikkelson’s Kaecilius was no more than a simple interchangeable villain that we seem to come across in so many blockbuster films. I do think the potential of the character was there and I loved the idea of him being the “student that goes rogue” and his followers but we didn’t really dig into that story. What the story focused on was really the superficial stereotype of student gets shown ability, has some sort of falling out with teacher, and now opposes the teacher and everything they stand for. Not entirely original but still a very interesting concept and compelling story.

Another problem, and this is really more of an issue with this whole aspect of the MCU, is that sometimes it was easy to lose yourself in the mumbo jumbo of the character’s world. Not that it is mumbo jumbo but I don’t have a better word for it so let’s just role with it okay. It is worth noting that I am more accepting of all this magical exposition information than the average movie goer. However I ran into this with the Harry Potter movies and I have to be an “objective movie audience member”. They throw a lot of information at you that you have to digest rather quickly in order to fully understand what is going on in the movie. It is probably helpful to be familiar with the comic book origin of the character but most of us aren’t so this means that most of us will probably require a second viewing of the movie in order to fully grasp the sheer size of this world. There isn’t necessarily a great way to explain all this information to a non-dedicated marvel viewer so the solution to this dilemma is not a simple one.

However the actors were all spectacular. Casting is as always with these films on point. Benedict Cumberbatch as Doctor Strange works on so many levels and after seeing the film it is so clear as to why he was the clear (and only) choice for the role. He brings a style of hilarity and genius to that role of Doctor Strange that clearly Sherlock was helping prepare him for. Strange’s character arc was by far the most dynamic of all the film’s roles however and it definitely showed. We got some very interesting new characters (and actors) introduced to the Movie Machine that is Marvel and it would have been nice to see some more from certain character’s, like Mordo (aka Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character). Especially because of where we see him in his character’s journey by the post credits sting which is a complete 180 for that character. Mordo is now attacking fellow sorcerers and stealing their powers because in his mind the world’s problems are now due to the fact that there are too many sorcerer’s squandering their gifts out in the world. That kind of transformation while admittedly happening off screen is still a large shift to process having had only minimal screen time for that character.

But this movie has so much going for it. It is without a doubt the most refreshing and new take on the MCU than any of the other films we have seen so far. We have watched men with a mechanical suit fly, we have seen super soldiers fight a Nazi death cult, then fight a Nazi death cult again, and then fight the man in the mechanical suit that flies. We have even seen Norse gods take on tricksters! Marvel has introduced so many characters at this point in their cinematic universe and it would be easy to grow complacent by only cultivating the franchises they already have. But instead they took a risk, much like they did with Guardians of the Galaxy, by introducing a brand new character to the MCU canon. The payoff is an entirely new world of powers that we now get to explore. There is still so much to learn with this character and his world that he exists in but as we were promised by the post credits sting, “Doctor Strange will return”. So we will undoubtedly be seeing much more of him in the coming phases of Marvel.

Overall the film was really entertaining and hit all the beats that we expect a Marvel movie would. When you consider what this means for the MCU and the fact that ANOTHER INFINITY STONE HAS BEEN INTRODUCED, it is rather exciting. The breathtaking effects alone are enough to justify the price of admission but the great story and humor that is brought to the characters and is present with every Marvel movie is just an added benefit. This newest addition to Marvel’s line up of superheroes really introduces a new world of exciting possibilities (as the Ancient One would say) to the Marvel Cinematic Universe.